(digital music) ♪ The sun ♪ ♪ Has the H2O ♪ ♪ In the sunlight and what you know ♪ - [Narrator] Those important, yet so often omitted parts of the American history narrative are told in the musical, the Earth Remembers.

♪ If these shores could speak ♪ ♪ If this air could communicate ♪ ♪ What truth would they see ♪ ♪ If these trees could testify ♪ ♪ What would they tell ♪ ♪ The deepest darkest truth they know them well ♪ - Talking about all of the history on our soil and good and bad, the earth remembers it all.

♪ Before we get to Hampton Rose ♪ ♪ Hampton Rose ♪ ♪ We got to stop the flow ♪ ♪ Stop the flow ♪ ♪ Take it back to the motherland ♪ ♪ Back to the motherland ♪ - And who better to narrate this journey of historic revelations than the one source who's seen it all?

Mother Earth.

♪ Strike ready to roll up.

♪ ♪ Hold up ♪ - Especially in this era where the government is stating that these stories don't have to be told in class.

We have to find another way to teach it.

(singing continues) - It's a modern infusion of many genres.

Predominant is hip hop rap in the storytelling in many of the pieces, but it's a song cycle.

♪ Taken over by the Portuguese ♪ ♪ They got us on our knees just to control ♪ - Each piece speaks to the same idea of these moments in Hampton roads in Virginia's history.

Where we went up against opportunities to determine who gets to take up space and have privilege in Virginia.

♪ I'm trapped in chains of misery ♪ ♪ Look what this tiring did to me ♪ ♪ In bondage and captivity ♪ ♪ I can taste the deep waters ♪ - Upon learning how complicated the history was.

We, sorta knew that it needed to be told in a special way.

(singing and drumming) - The musicals writers study the region's history, concentrating on the stories seldom if ever shared like the challenges faced and contributions made by blacks, Filipinos, and native Americans.

♪ For freedom and peace where the people who need a release ♪ ♪ the demons we meet ♪ ♪ (artist's voice gets drowned by narrator) ♪ - Even those recognizable pieces of Virginia history.

Like the story of Bacon's rebellion are told from a different perspective.

♪ For freedom and peace.

♪ (lively upbeat music) - In trying to figure out a cool way to tell this part of history, it all just made sense to tell it from these two women's perspective.

♪ Till that day comes we will keep on fighting fighting ♪ - We hardly hear about the woman's perspective, but then the fact that they were so involved in their own rights, it was a no brainer to at least highlight in some way.

(instrumental music) - Another piece of Virginia history, we hear very little about, the story of John Casor, an enslaved black man who sues his owner, a free black , for his freedom.

♪ Employed by a Negro, Anthony Johnson a worker ♪ ♪ I did for limited time ♪ ♪ I wasn't supposed to make it through the Negro genocide ♪ ♪ Many families torn and many harmless children died ♪ - The slave is kind of like what's going on?

We are both black men like, this shouldn't be happening.

And we don't really learn much about that in our history.

♪ Watch how the tables turn turn turn turn ♪ ♪ I refuse the shackles around my ankles they put on me, ♪ ♪ I will turn the key.

♪ - It was a tricky thing to write a song like that and not feel like I had to put my feelings as a black man into that.

And to sort of, separate that and (lively instrumental music) tell it from what America was at that point.

(instrumental music and singing continues) ♪ T O B A C C O ♪ - Learning about how important the tobacco plant was to the economy is mind blowing.

(singing continues) - We wanted to keep it entertaining.

We knew that cause of the heavy content that it has, we wanted to make it as big as lively, as fun and as educational as possible.

(lively instrumental music) ♪ Filipino or American dad's from Manila but a U S veteran ♪ ♪ Mom said education would be a leverage ♪ ♪ Meanwhile I'm searching for cliques to be accepted in ♪ - [Narrator] The actors, some picking center stage for the first time in their lives, share both personal and historic accounts of how their ancestors came to call the region home.

♪ She said you can be anything you can be anything ♪ ♪ as long as you stay with me ♪ ♪ Mama said get out and go ♪ - The song that's featured is actually loosely based off of someone that I interviewed, who sort of told me her challenges and her, struggles and her triumphs being Filipino in Hampton roads.

♪ So what if we are different when our heart's the same ♪ ♪ Regardless I'm in love with you ♪ ♪ So what if the worlds says no ♪ ♪ I feel no shame regardless I'm in love with you too ♪ - Right now, as a people, we're divided in a lot of ways.

I hope that we can get to a place, to where this isn't affecting, how humanity moves forward.

And I think the theater is a great place to start that.

♪ This is our town this is our place ♪ ♪ This is heaven for there's no place like home ♪ ♪ We are in the 7 5 7 ♪ ♪ 24 7 Every day of the year ♪ ♪ No place like home ♪ ♪ 49 other states in the USA but we're here ♪ ♪ No place like home ♪ ♪ No matter how far you travel away ♪ ♪ Your soul is here to say ♪ ♪ No place like home ♪ ♪ When you decide to return know you're welcome back any day ♪ - Mother earth, she reminds us from the beginning of the piece that regardless of what we identify with locale, ethnicity, complexion, that we all share the same origin ultimately, and that we are all here sharing the same space and that we should be good stewards of it.

(singing with lively instrumental music continues) (upbeat music and cheering) (instrumental music)